Sunday 28 January 2024

Conservatives Show The Problem With Democracy

My biggest gripe about Democracy is that the voters have no way to force another election if the party who won the last election turn out to be a disaster and it is only four or five years later we get to vote again.
What should be introduced is a way to remove a Government if they turn out to be a shambles or if the manifesto they promised before the election day turns out to be a pack of lies or if they are as corrupt as the last Government.
We are inundated with polls so why not have a poll made up of all polls which if support falls below a certain percentage, an Election is triggered.
The latest YouGov/Times voting intention poll shows the Conservatives on 20% with Labou on 47% so the trajectory is for a huge Labour win but the most alarming statistic is that 66% of the Adult population disapprove of the current Conservative Government and only 14% approve.
The timing of the next election is in the gift of the Prime Minister and due to the fixed term agreement, Rishi Sunak will be forced to hold one this year and November is the month being most mentioned, almost at the very limit of the latest possible date.
I understand that it would be madness for Sunak to hold an election now which is why he is leaving it until the fag end of the year in the forlorn hope that something may happen to turn around his Governments fortunes, hence the tax cuts that are being floated in the belief that voters will change their minds if they pay 18% of their wages in taxes rather than the current 20% and hopefully not notice that they will still be paying the highest rate of tax since the 1940's.
I have always thought that what Democracy needs is a way to remove unpopular Governments rather than allow them to just carry on regardless because sure as hell the ruling Government isn't going to look at the polls, realise how unpopular they are and just go on of their volition.
I don't know what the figure should be set at, most of our Government's seem to hit the 35%-40% number which immediately leaves 60%-65% who didn't vote for them so it would have to be the approval percentage rather than the disapproval rating.
The last election in 2019 saw the Conservatives win 41% of the vote so if we take that figure of 41% approval, the 14% approval now is a huge drop which means 27% who voted for them would not vote for them again so throw that in with the 59% who never voted for them anyway that's a huge 86% of the country who don't want the current Government to carry on doing whatever it is, or isn't, doing.
I don't know if the King has any power to stick his oar in or there is some ancient statute on the books we could use but we need a way to force an Election.
No need for demonstrations or the military airing it's hardware in the streets, just the will of the people who the Government by all accounts is supposed to be representing and if the people think you are lousy, off you go.